that a high-protein popcorn type was the first
corn to be cultivated, but all five were known
to native Americans long before the coming
of Europeans.
Popcorn and flint corn have a relatively
large amount of storage protein that
surrounds granules of high-amy-lose
starch.
Dent corn, the variety most commonly
grown for animal feed and for milled
food ingredients (grits, meals, flours),
has a localized deposit of low-amylose,
“waxy” starch at the crown of the kernel,
which produces a depression, or dent, in
the dried kernel.
Flour corns, including the standard
varieties of blue corn, are soft and easily
ground because their endosperm is a
discontinuous and weak combination of
relatively little protein, mostly waxy
starch, and air pockets. What we call
Indian corn today are flour and flint